16 worst political dirty tricks

Reports emerged during Tuesday’s recall election that Wisconsin voters were receiving robocalls telling them that if they had already signed a petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker, they did not need to get out and vote. Such shenanigans are nothing new in American campaigns. Here are some of the dirtiest dirty tricks (and if you know of others, shoot us a note at WBergstrom(at)politico.com).
By William Bergstrom and Alysha Love

Santorum’s Google problem

Columnist and gay-rights activist Dan Savage, as revenge against Rick Santorum for the politician’s comments against homosexuality, launched a website that defined “Santorum” as — well, as something unprintable — and successfully campaigned to push the site near the top of Google’s search results.